1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to accordion-type hurricane storm shutters which, when deployed, protect windows and doors from flying object impact during storms and hurricanes, and more particularly to such a storm shutter having corrugated or flat storm slats with ribbed reinforced hinge members which greatly increase the storm shutter's ability to withstand high velocity airborne object impact during a hurricane and building code testing.
2. Description of Related Art
Accordion-type shutter assemblies and roll-up shutter assemblies have become extremely popular for protecting the windows and doors and thus the interiors of buildings during severe storms and hurricanes. Flying objects, which, when airborne, can exceed well over one hundred miles an hour during a hurricane, are easily able to penetrate through unprotected doors and windows leading to more severe building damage as a result thereof.
The following prior patents are examples of accordion-type shutter assemblies developed to protect the interior of a home or building.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,635 to Solomon discloses a rolling protective gate or door for store fronts, building entrances or the like in which vertical rods or links are completely eliminated and in which the gate is not made in open grille form, but which provides a high degree of visibility therethrough when the gate is in the lowered position.
Snarli teaches a rollable or foldable shutter for protecting window areas where all or parts of the shutter are transparent in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,305.
A combination blade of extruded aluminum and transparent impact plastic such as polycarbonate to protect glass windows and doors is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,681 to Trundle.
Recent building code restrictions have dramatically increased impact strength requirements for doors and windows and devices intended to afford protection from storm and hurricane damage due to wind-driven flying objects. Current hurricane protection must now be stringently tested and qualified for production and code acceptance under test conditions not imagined two decades ago. As a result, not only have the overall impact strength requirements been increased, but the uniqueness of the testing requirements are forcing development of specialized hurricane protection structure to, at least in part, meet specific code testing requirements. The present invention provides corrugated rather than flat accordion-type storm shutter slats which greatly increase the ability of these storm shutters in meeting these new hurricane testing codes by affording a substantially greater resistance to flying object impact when that flying object strikes directly against the center of one of the slats rather than impacting against a stronger knuckle area between shutter slats.
The present invention also provides an improved corrugated or flat shutter for an accordion-type storm shutter assembly with ribbed hinge members for better protecting windows and doors during storms and hurricanes. Moreover, it is submitted that each of the embodiments disclosed in this invention will more than adequately meet current impact test requirements for such accordion shutters as set forth in municipal building codes.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.